Ukrainian strike kills six in Russia’s Belgorod region

A Ukrainian missile strike killed at least six people overnight in Russia’s Belgorod region, local officials said Monday, as Russia launched fresh missile and drone attacks across Ukraine that killed several people and wounded others.

Alexander Shuvaev, acting governor of Belgorod, said four people were injured in the Ukrainian strike, including a 14-year-old child. The attack hit Koloskovo, a village in the Valuysky district near the Ukrainian border, burning a building and damaging a car, he wrote on Telegram, according to the BBC. Al Jazeera reported that Shuvaev made the statement on the state-backed MAX platform and said Koloskovo is about 15 kilometers, or 10 miles, from Ukraine’s northeastern border.

Shuvaev said the injured child was sent to a hospital and two other people received medical assistance.

The attack came as Russian forces struck multiple Ukrainian regions overnight. Ukrainian officials said two people were killed in Russian drone strikes on the Sumy region, close to the border with Russia, the BBC reported. Al Jazeera reported that Russian missile and drone attacks across Ukraine killed at least four people and wounded 19, including two people killed and four injured in Zaporizhzhia and two killed and one wounded in Russian shelling on Sumy, citing emergency services.

Al Jazeera also reported that five people were injured in a Russian strike on Dnipropetrovsk, four were hurt when two guided-bomb attacks hit Izyum in the Kharkiv region, and five were injured in attacks on Kherson. In the Odesa region, Ukrainian authorities said a Russian attack targeted port infrastructure in the Izmail district, damaging a Togo-flagged civilian vessel before fires were extinguished. Izmail, near the Romanian border, is home to Ukraine’s largest port on the Danube River.

The latest exchanges followed a deadly weekend of strikes deep inside both countries. Russian officials described Saturday night’s Ukrainian attack as the largest launched by Ukraine this year, the BBC reported. At least seven people were killed in Russia, including five in the southwestern Rostov region, a woman in an attack on a civilian bus in Belgorod and an 83-year-old man in a drone attack in the Moscow region.

The BBC reported that Ukraine fired about 822 drones toward Russia on Saturday night, with 600 aimed at Moscow, according to the regional governor, who described it as “one of the most massive drone attacks in recent memory.” A warehouse belonging to Russian online retailer Wildberries was also hit.

Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Wildberries since July. Ukraine’s Defence Ministry said the latest attack meant seven of the company’s 10 largest logistics centers had been “disabled,” the BBC reported. Al Jazeera reported that Ukraine says Wildberries sells components for Russian drones and outfits Russian soldiers, and that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said attacks on such sites and on oil refineries are intended to undermine Russia’s war economy.

Russia has also intensified strikes across Ukraine in recent weeks. Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz said Monday that Russia had attacked its facilities 13 times in the past week. Zelenskyy said 13 Ukrainian regions had come under attack this week, with Russia launching more than 1,550 attack drones, nearly 1,560 guided aerial bombs and 62 missiles.

In Russian attacks on Saturday night, Ukrainian officials said a man and woman died when a private house was hit by a guided aerial bomb in Zaporizhzhia, and five others were killed in attacks across the country, the BBC reported. Russia said its strikes on Kyiv targeted a FirePoint facility producing parts for Ukrainian Flamingo missiles and a factory making drone components. The attacks also hit a book market in Kyiv’s Pochayna district, where burnt books were seen on the ground.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and currently controls about a fifth of Ukrainian territory. Both sides accuse each other of targeting civilians.